Games too long? I wonder why...

As you remember, the NCAA made a couple of little changes in the rules in order to speed things up. Of course, they couldn't have imagined some of the repercussions: Less football- More Gambling!!

And Wisconsin's take:

For some people, it's been a significant change: Clock Rules May have Cost Koetter Job, USC National Title.

But, it's had an impact on every game: There were the same number of plays run this year as last, but every team was eligible to play 12 games. Yup, over the course of the season an entire game's worth of plays has been lost. Oh yeah, this is a great idea. The perfect storm for me came in the Michigan/Notre Dame game: Coach Carr was informed beforehand that there would be 5 minutes of commercials between quarters.

Earlier, I suggested that:

You want to make the game move faster? Go back to the old rules, and limit the commercials. Sometime this week, I'm going back to count how many commercial breaks/commercials (including those ones where they tell you who is sponsoring the game after a commercial break) that this game had in the first half. As a point of reference, TV time stated at 5, kickoff at 5:16, and the second quarter didn't start until after 6. The worst part of it? The ESPN/ABC ticker used to tell us about upcoming ABC shows. That's like making announcements for a strip club in church- the ticker is sacred.

Here are some ideas that we came up with to assist with this...

1. Fewer commercials, higher prices. That way, the money stays the same.
2. Set a specific number of commercials. Once you run out, you can't break away from the game. Heck, show the bands...
3. my favorite Same as above, but also limit the amount of airtime that Brent Musburger has, and make these dependant upon each other. So, if Brent goes 5 minutes over his limit, then that's 5 minutes less of commercials you can have. If Brent keeps his yap shut, then ABC can even run extra commercials. Seriously- I'm ok with commentators filling 'dead air' as long as they know what they are talking about. Brent Musburger does not.
4. on a similar vein Hold an event after the game where Brent has to suit up and actually go against some of the people he's been talking about. Sell commercials to that. Guaranteed to make up any lost revenue from assuming any of the previous ideas

Well, I never got around to making a complete study, but I have amazing news: Someone else did! A great Buckeye fan from the Bay area (no, not that one) did a time study of the Rose Bowl, and took it one step further. He assessed the totality of all plugs (including pregame {from posted kickoff time to actual kickoff} and in game), and came up with the following statistics:

• Of the 232 minutes of broadcast time, 78 minutes (34% of the time) were commercials or ads
• Of the remaining 154 minutes, there were 112 sponsored plugs
• Total is 207 plugs/adds for 232 minutes of the broadcast

It's a great read, and a great advertisement for Tivo/DVR. I watched the Boise State/Oklahoma game on digital delay last night, and made it to "live" action by the fourth quarter. And, no commercials.

Although, I will say that while FOX is still struggling with camera angles, commentary, and overall broadcasting "big time" college football, I have been very pleased that they don't do the ESPN/ABC/Disney "Touchdown, extra point, commercial, kickoff, commercial" dance that drives me so nuts. We'll see if this continues on Monday.

Great job, Mike!